by William Law

Part I. - 1749
& Part II. - 1750 Both Parts were Revised
& Corrected by the Author -
1758

The scope
of The Spirit of Prayer was and is to provide a
practical way for a soul to turn its vain desires from self and the things of the world,
back toward God...that the desire of the heart really must become the Spirit of
Prayer...in a continual panting after God and that the most radical enemy to that
necessary rebirth within, is a worldly spirit, which is the desire of the heart turned
toward the world.

William Law published The
Spirit of Prayer in two parts, with a deliberate interval between them and a
deliberate difference in their presentations. As the vastness of the subject to be
covered was made known to him, he perceived that one of the evils and vanities which would
attend the 'opening out' of the {genuine} philosophy of religion, in some of the
individuals to whom he was immediately addressing himself, would be the arousing onlyofcuriosity in them, rather than to elicit compunction and amendment.

As the actual application of such
a philosophy to the highest interests of man, the contents of the "First
Part" of the Spirit of Prayer may be considered to be a universal
grammar of, a re-statement of, a re-introduction to {the true} gospel Christianity, which
"First Part" was necessary to be presented as a text, or preliminary to what was
to follow:  Mr. Law's call from the Lord being to preach the {true} gospel
to the educated, who, "not having fathomed the philosophy of Nosce te
ipsum {Know Thyself}, and being indeed entirely ignorant of their own
nature and condition, are unbelievers in the truth of that redemption into which they are
born, and which only requires ...the turning of their desires from Self to God, to become
their salvation."

Mr. Law told a friend that he...
"had met with very few persons whose awakened zeal had not turned into
curiosity"; that is, who, instead of devoting themselves with all the more
earnestness, constancy, and diligence, to the attainment of the Divine Life, by the
superior light and instruction which they had acquired, they chose to hold fast,
contenting themselves with their own imaginary conceptions of the mysteries of salvation,
or with procuring for themselves a fine collection of books on mystical subjects!
Mr. Law therefore resolved to expose and correct this common frailty, by making
it the object of the introductory subject of the "Second Part", which is so much
to that point.

The "Second
Part" of the Spirit of Prayer was published one year after the
first. Mr. Law composed his message in the form of Three Dialogues  that
mode of presentation being shown to set forth his subject to the best advantage.

The
Participants in the Dialogues:

The dramatis personae{the
cast of characters} therein introduced, including the author himself, are four in
number.

The first, Academicus,
is represented as a man of learning, thoroughly versed in scholastic metaphysics and
theology, but (like our modern divines with few exceptions) wholly unsuspicious of the
real nature, depth and necessity of the new birth, which he regards only as a
figurative expression, and who prides himself upon his choice collection of the works of
the fathers and other spiritual authors.

The second, Rusticus,
another speaker, is a simple, unlettered English yeoman of the old school, possessed of a
vigorous understanding and strong natural sense, who having been deeply affected by the
solemn and awakening truths set forth in such unprecedented clearness in the "First
Part", had turned all into immediate practice and reaped the benefits of such a
common-sense mode of procedure. Of the possibility of which experimental knowledge
of the the gospel, he had not had even the remotest conception before meeting with Mr.
Law's book, even though he had been a regular attendant at his parish church; because
Christianity had never been presented to him in its true natural light, but only as seen
through the spectacles of ordinary university theology, or self-styled evangelical
theology.

Humanus,
a third assistant, who is introduced as a silent listener to the conversations,
and who agrees to remain so to the end, may be regarded as a personification of that large
class of sober-thinking, honest unbelievers, who were best known in Law's country as
deists, but in which may be included every class of well-educated free-thinkers. In
short, Humanus, is a fair representation of humanity as it stands
in the best state possible to it without the gospel; having no knowledge of the gospel's
real grounds and implications, destitute of that rational conviction of its divine origin,
and void of apprehension of its true nature, which may be said to be the indispensable
condition for a person of judgment and sincerity who is an unbeliever, to come upon
an entrance to the evangelical life.

Lastly, Theophilusmay be regarded as representing the Lord speaking through Mr. Law in the character of
a true theosopher, or heaven-illuminated sage, whose business it is to open out to view,
the universal scheme of the revelations of the Deity, in all its scope and implications;
and to place the gospel in its true light, by demonstrating that the procedure of God in
nature and grace is the same, and that the highest conformity to the Christian verities,
is strictly accordant with the unchangeable laws of the physical and intellectual
universe.

From:
{Notes and Materials}*

The
Subjects of the "First Part" of The Spirit of Prayer.

Chapter
I.  The indifference and insensibility of men in general to their
eternal interests.  The original state of man as the son of God, and
therefore a living image of the Triune Deity.  His trial and his
fall.  The commencement of his redemption.  His
real nature and state by reason of sin.  How it differs
from that of the fallen angels.  The means of his salvation, or recovery
of the life, or light and Holy Spirit of God.  The new-birth not
a figurative expression, but a real, living process.  The whole
chapter being a familiar discourse of matters preparatory to the Spirit of
Prayer.

Chapter
II.  In what the salvation or the regenerate life consists.
 The manifestation of the nature, life, and spirit of Jesus Christ in the new
inward man.  The means of attaining such a state lie in faith, or the
right direction and earnest action of the desire.  How the ground
or principium, which is the engrafted word or incorruptible seed of Christ, lies
latent in every soul.  Its opening or
manifestation being the only way of salvation.  The
tokens by which the regenerate spirit discovers itself.  All
depends on obedience or adherence to it.  The infallible truths
by which we may be assured that our dependence on it is well grounded.
 The abandonment of self, and the truenature
and worth of self-denial and mortification.
 That no activity of our own is of any avail to
salvation.  The only way is the desire of the soul turned to
God.

All sectarianism [and
partiality] is extinguished in this work, which makes the whole universe of nature and
grace apprehensible, under one governing idea and plan, as an edifice of pure love; which
in itself is an argument for the truth of the philosophy that it opens out, because truth
itself is unsectarian, unlimited and universal in its embrace  not confined to
Christendom, but comprehending all the human race "in the
outstretched arms of its catholic [universal] love."

From:
{Notes and Materials}*

The Subjects
of the "Second Part" of The Spirit of Prayer.

First
Dialogue.  Introduction, on the vanity of knowledge where there is
no religion.  Spiritual books only useful as calls to the absolute
renunciation of self, and the commencement of the new life.  The nature
of self described, and the necessity of its complete oblation or death
demonstrated.  The actual grounds of this
necessity in the nature of things, and not in the arbitrary provisions of God's
providence.  How the will of the creature stands between God and
nature, as the opener of all good and evil.  Its turning to
God in absolute faith and earnestness of desire, the means of bringing heaven into the
soul.  The accordance of these doctrines with the Scripture.
 One only death and one only life in all nature.

Second
Dialogue.  The philosophy of the Gospel doctrine of redemption and
salvation, continued.  How Adam stood in his state of
perfection.  The gradual fall, and division of Adam into male and
female.  The means of human recovery, by the covenant of 'the seed
of the woman'.  The argument for the renunciation of self and the
world, resumed on the rational ground of this philosophy.  In
what consists the great apostasy, the sin of all sins and the heresy of all
heresies.  Hours and forms of prayer considered.

Third
Dialogue.  The difficulty attending the total conversion of the
heart to God.  The whole nature to be parted with, and yet no
possibility in man of doing it.  The omnipotence of
the love of God, and how it overcomes all evil and opposition when the heart turns wholly
to him.  How it has followed man from the beginning as the
'Immanuel' or seed of Christ treasured in every soul.
 The beginning of salvation by the germination of this seed.
 The new creature formed, or the Spirit of God dwelling and working in
man.  How this Spirit is received and known, so as
to avoid delusion.  The prayer of this Spirit, being the
only genuine devotion.  No other spirit in man works to
salvation.  The consistency of this doctrine with free will.
 A state of prayer, the continual and habitual state of the will:
according as it works with the Spirit of God, or the spirit of fallen
nature.  All its goodness dependent on the continuity and
earnestness of the will-spirit or desire.  The outward
expression of prayer justly discriminated.  How far manuals of
devotions are profitable.  The degrees of prayer,
or steps of the spiritual life.  Why the motion of the Holy
Spirit is the source of every aspiration to unite with the goodness and holiness of God.
 How this Spirit is known by the pure, free, universal goodness,
meekness and love which it breathes.  These tempers in man, the
certain effect of its presence and influence.  No
activity of our own of any avail to salvation.
 The only way is the desire of the soul turned toward God.

These subjects are not
only treated in the strictly argumentative manner and captivating diction peculiar to the
author's gift, but they are all along elucidated from Scripture, so as to demonstrate the
exact conformity of their philosophical development with the genuine gospel, and with the
simple experimental matter of fact as regards personal regeneration, and conversion of the
soul to God. The range and scope of these subjects is of course much more extensive
than that of corrupted evangelical truth as commonly taught and expressed, and their
presentation is worthy of that universal procedure which must have been the true origin of
things; and which, indeed, have been collaterally demonstrated by their application in the
Newtonian philosophy, and, as the basis of all modern enlightened sciences as well as
medicine.

* Much
of the above text was gleaned from the preserved work of Christopher
Walton, author of: Notes and Materials for an Adequate Biography of The Celebrated Divine andTheosopher, William Law.Published in London -1854 {otherwise referred to on this page as Notes
and Materials}

.

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Acknowledgment

PTW's 1998 HTML, on-line version
of William Law's The Spirit of Prayer, Part I & Part II was derived
using (with permission) Warner Whites painstakingly transcribed ASCII electronic
text (produced in 1995 by White, who
worked from the modernized 1974 George Olms Verlag [Hildesheim New York ] edition of The
Works of the Reverend William Law).
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